1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to technology for carrying out transfer of data in a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Network devices that use multiple transfer resources in order to perform data transfer have come to be used for applications such as IX and company internal networks. In such network devices, past practice has been to use all of the transfer resources irrespective of the level of traffic. The related art is disclosed in the applications JP-A-P2004-135106A and JP-A-pP2000-201166A
However, as there is substantially no drop in power consumption by transfer resources in association with the lower data transfer levels, some of the power consumed during times of low traffic at certain times of day or certain seasons will be wasted. This problem is not just one relating to traffic fluctuations associated with certain times of day, but rather one relating to the general versatility of network devices with respect to traffic requests. Specifically, it has proven difficult to provide a network device able to operate at appropriate power levels depending on traffic requests. By way of a specific example, providing network devices of differing processing capabilities and power consumption for high-load applications such as IX (Internet eXchange) and for relatively low-load applications was associated with increased administration costs and hardware costs.